We made it to Peru!! We had a craazzyyy bunch of travel days, but a really great debrief in Cusco! Our ministry this month is a lot of working with the local VBS and helping out with youth projects. We’re living in a super fun facility and we’ve been eating some GREAT food!
During debrief, we took one night to go into the streets of Cusco and evangelize. We sat down for a few minutes and did listening prayer, asking the Lord who He wanted us to talk to and where He wanted us to go.
Our team got a variety of different words and images including: an elephant trumpeting, a green ripped cloth, pink fabric, “wide”, bright green grass, “smile sweetly”, and a series of directions. When we felt confident in what the Lord had spoken to us, we headed out into the city.
As we were walking, we all agreed that, yes, we were looking for these specific words and images that the Lord had given us, but there were plenty of ministry opportunities outside of these specific things.
As we were walking down the sidewalk we saw a woman, distracted by her phone, stumble over something, then keep walking. When we got closer, I realized that she had just tripped over a man. An actual human being. A man that had a name and a family and feelings.
This man, Stephen, didn’t have use of his legs. He spent his days crawling around the streets of Cusco. He had protective gear lining his shins and blocks of wood that he held in his hands in order to make his crawling less painful. We bent down to talk to him and he was immediately taken aback. He seemed so surprised that people, let alone Americans, would take the time to talk with him when everyone else in the streets hardly looked at him. When he realized that our sole motive was to get to know him, He really opened up! Stephen had the brightest smile that I had seen in a LONG time and he completely lit up with joy during our conversation.
We talked with him about his life, his faith, and things that he enjoys. He told us that he attends a church and that he loves studying the Bible. Towards the end of our conversation, we asked if we could lay our hands on him and pray for healing. He told us that we couldn’t because he believes that Christians should only pray by themselves behind closed doors. When we asked him what we could be praying for, he told us to ask for more of Christ’s wisdom.
HEAR THIS!!
This request came from the man who spends his days CRAWLING through the streets of Cusco. His deepest desire is to know the Lord more deeply and intimately. THAT is his most raw desire from day to day. He chose wisdom over health and money and food and family.
We all have so much to learn from this humble man! Although I claim to want to know the Lord, it might be hard for me to ask for wisdom instead of asking for legs that work. When confronted with trials, it’s so easy for us to choose comfort over the best that the Lord has for us.
One of my favorite parts of the Race has been having the opportunity to meet awesome people like this. I love getting to know people and see the truest parts of who they are. I love seeing how to Lord created each of us SO uniquely and He’s given each of us unique gifts.
Here’s a picture of our friend, Stephen!
